In certain cabinet structures, such as freestanding dishwasher cabinet structures, the closure means is pivotally mounted on the front of the cabinet at the bottom of a front opening of the cabinet through which the dishes to be washed are delivered into and removed from the interior dishwashing space. The closure means, or door, is arranged to be pivoted from a closed position across the opening to an open position extending generally horizontally forwardly from the cabinet. The racks in which the dishes are placed conventionally are arranged to be moved forwardly through the opening for accessibility thereto. In moving forwardly, the lower rack is conventionally carried on the forwardly extending door. Downward forces on the forwardly disposed racks and door, such as by placing articles to be washed in the rack by the user bearing downwardly on the racks may cause the entire cabinet assembly to tip forwardly. The problem of tip-over could be overcome by securing the appliance to the floor or other solid structure; however, there are many occasions when it is either impossible or undesirable to do so. Tip-over could also be minimized by extending outrigging from the cabinet; however, this would result in excessive consumption of floor space. It, therefore, would be desirable to provide, in a freestanding cabinet having a door in its sidewall, anti-tip means to prevent tip-over of the cabinet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,150,904-Kendt et al, assigned to the General Electric Company, the assignee of the present invention, discloses a pair of forwardly and downwardly directed outboard arms which are extensible to a point forward of the cabinet when the door is open to prevent tipping of the cabinet. U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,727-Race et al, assigned to the General Electric Company, the assignee of the present invention, discloses an anti-tip system that prevents tipping of the cabinet in response to the downward movement of the door from its open position and in response to the tilting forward of the cabinet. The present invention is an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 3,738,727 in that once installed on any machine the active parts of the system will interact to prevent tip-over of the cabinet without adjustable tolerance requirements between the cabinet and the anti-tip structure.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an anti-tilt system that once assembled relative to the cabinet no other adjustments are necessary between the anti-tilt arm and its supporting cabinet.